Showing posts with label dream. Show all posts
Showing posts with label dream. Show all posts

Monday, May 1, 2023

Such is Perhaps

I've come to the conclusion that love and life
are a fine mingling of disappointment and delight!


Torrential down-pours to and from Pennsylvania
 hampered/dampened what would have been even more spectacular views,
on our weekend getaway to attend our nephew's wedding!


Dodging the timing of the wipers to capture the *perfect shot became a bit of a game...
*(I quickly gave up on 'perfect' and simply hoped for a few unblurry shots)😅


But Saturday was less wet than forecasted 
so we didn't get drenched in the morning while doing touristy things
 nor in the afternoon did guests get drenched. 
The wedding was beautiful!


This beautiful couple have already been through some deeply refining disappointments
requiring dream-rearranging...(shot blurred for privacy sake)


Weather-disappointments are a part of life and overall
rather small on the scale of disappointments!
And God's handiwork is stunning, even in the rain!
(both literally and metaphorically)



Sometimes dreams don't turn out how we imagine/anticipate!
But if we place our dreams into God's hands
 perhaps, no, surely He will use the disappointment
to deepen our awareness and appreciation for
the myriad of mercies we are showered with daily! 







Dreamworlds collapse; Such is ‘perhaps’
…perhaps life’s bitter-sweetest means
Of teaching us to hope and trust
In more than destiny of dreams

Perhaps to help us hone the heart
To kinder, meeker give-and-take
Because we know the stinging smart
That ‘perhaps’ can leave in its wake

...to make us more aware of how
We wield the onus of replies
Where perhaps ‘perhaps’ is the ‘wow’
Still wearing broken-dream disguise

...while we weather warpaths of wish
Vexed by detours, potholes, barred gates
Perhaps we should remember this;
 Perhaps something far better waits

© Janet Martin



Life's disappointments develop and test
the mettle of our character.
Everyone is hunky-dory when life goes the way we like, right?
When it doesn't...ah! what then?!

1 Thess.5:18
...in everything give thanks; 
for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.

A lot of our deepest disappointments are only fully witnessed
by He who truly loves and cares!
Thank-you, faithful Heavenly Father🙏




Tuesday, February 28, 2023

February/Winter Flowers


I picked the flower puzzle to do (see quandary here
because there's just something about flowers
in winter that can't be beat!!


even the pieces look like a handful of petals tossed on a garden path!
So, let's celebrate the last day of February with winter flowers
even if they are painted on cardboard💖😊


They kindle wild dream-pleasure for gardens not planted yet
They gleam with priceless treasure of fond memories to be
They rouse a youthful yearning in the appetites they whet
For perfumed pinks and purples heady with sweet nectar-tea
And like children with rosy faces, kissed by brisk wind-chill
They bloom a little rosier on winter’s windowsill

They delight hearts with visions of a sunny summer’s day
Where butterflies and laughter flit and flirt with honey bee
They make indoors feel friendlier while winter whiles away
As we stroll perfect gardens in a plot of fantasy
A welcome splash of color on a dolor afternoon
They garnish kitchen tables with a glint of May or June

They cheer us with old fashioned charm and make us humbly glad
To be alive where flowers wait to burst the bud with bloom
As blush and gold menageries drive poets gently mad
With so much beauty to behold from Mother Nature’s loom
Primed with a plethora of plumes no tombs can keep at bay 
Unfolding outdoor living rooms still snuggly tucked away

© Janet Martin

Speaking of outdoor living rooms
I would love to try this come spring!



 

Thursday, January 26, 2023

The Wonderworld of 'Will' or The Best of 'This'

Oh, the wonders of tomorrow...
Little grand-daughter sighed with ecstasy  as she relived
 a euphoric plethora of summer memories
 while peering through winter's window...toward spring!


Tomorrow will soon be today's challenges and joys
Tomorrow will soon steal today's girls and boys
Tomorrow will change (for better or worse) what Today still is
Tomorrow is a world away; let's make the best of This



'Grandma, why did you tape the door shut?', questioned grand-daughter the other day.
"Because it's not very tight", I replied "and we need to keep the shivery wind outside!
But, one warm, wonderful sunny day Gramma will take the tape off!
We will open the door and set the rocking chair and flowers
 back on the deck and have tea out there
and read books and have campfire suppers!
 Won't that be a happy day?!!"
And grand-daughters eyes sparkled with heaven-like anticipation as she sighed,
'ye-e-eth!! and aunty Mel will be here too, right?'
' Oh, I hope so,' was all gramma could promise😅💖

I've always believed anticipation is one of life's purest pleasures,
but let's not miss what is while we dream, right?!





Someday porch flowerpots will brim with pretty petal-plumes
The wooly-white woodland will ring with reawakened tunes
The meadow will be like a green-spun picnic blanket spread
Beneath a canopy of sun-kissed blue skies overhead

The barren branch will burgeon with hues of replenished shade
The gale will gentle its halloos into a serenade
Raindrop-waltzes will wash the world and rouse earth from its sleep
And windows will not frame counterpanes unfurled, white and deep

New beginnings will flower and blossoms will deck the grass
Dreamland’s barred gate will lower and beckon us to trespass
The quiet interlude between harvest and Planting Must
Will turn into a bustling scene of machine-startled dust

The clock will feast on a buffet of quickened hour-chime
Hearthside evenings borne away until next winter-time
And we will taste spring’s cheeriness that waits within our thought
And we will wear the weariness we had somehow forgot

And we will wonder at the way each season swiftly spills
While hunger scavenges hope’s tray that each new day refills
And we will bow our head in thanks to mortal’s gracious God
Where we will soon join silenced ranks in earth’s grave-stippled sod

The wonderworld of 'will' is filled with what yet waits to be
With tears and laughter not yet spilled into a memory
But, lest we miss the best of This that will fill yesteryears
Let's make the most of what yet is before it disappears 

© Janet Martin


Genesis 3:19
By the sweat of your brow you will eat your bread, 
until you return to the ground--because out of it were you taken. 
For dust you are, and to dust you shall return."

Eccles.12:7
Then the dust will return to the earth as it was,
 And the spirit will return to God who gave it.



Tuesday, January 10, 2023

Of Utmost Importance...


Anyone who is blessed with the company of children
in their day-to-day lives knows that much time is spent teaching and training!
Today's teaching moments at Janet's house included
how to crack peanuts from the shell...
(bite softly preferably with back teeth, to crack then pull apart with fingers)



how to hold on to the swing with arms when mittens are too poof-y or slippery


how to peel pomegranate...



how to draw a chicken...


how to take turns to help with the vacuuming...



The end goal of training children is a responsible, respectful adult.
The end 'goal' of an adult is ultimately,
 for better or worse, accountability to the Giver of life,
turning all training of all children into something with an eternal impact!

No wonder Solomon gives us this advice in Prov.22:6
Train up a child in the way he should go,
[a]And when he is old he will not depart from it.

How imperative it is then, 
to constantly reevaluate/reexamine 
our hopes and dreams,
to keep our priorities pure!

Four-season circuits wheel unfazed by centuries
Like chariots of gold and teal they pass through fields and trees...

Time tries our hopes and dreams
While from dawn’s lowered barge
God replenishes mercy-streams
Sufficient for the charge

…to keep, comfort and bless
With Shepherd’s staff and rod
All who seek first His righteousness
And the kingdom/sheepfold of God

Four-season circuits wheel
Unfazed by centuries
Like chariots of gold and teal/silk and steel
They pass through fields and trees

From east to west to east
A feast of shadows spills
Where want is a voracious beast
No fortune-flaunt fulfills

…while hopes and dreams arouse
A surf of smiles and tears
That roll where dust-to-dust soon bows
Beneath death’s wreath of years

How miniscule the stack
Of numbered days of man
That charge the barge that draws us back
To where we all began

How futile zeal defends
Life’s dream-bedazzled splash
If no hope at its halt transcends
Earth’s vault of dust and ash

© Janet Martin


Sunday, August 28, 2022

Dare To Dream But Bear In Mind...


I sat in the garden for a little while this afternoon soaking in the
sights, sounds and smells of fading August...

No longer restless with a dream, but reveling in the bloom!





Dare to dream but bear in mind Dream’s vulnerability
For, it seems life is inclined to vex blind fantasy
Where what we composed in forums with youth still intact
Soon begins to weather foibles and fumbles of fact

Dare to take a leap of faith but be aware of this
Sometimes you will hit the mark! Sometimes you will miss
Sometimes the sweet landing you envision when you jump
Will take you by rude surprise with an uncourtly bump

Dare to hold, hug and embrace but always with this thought
Letting go is juxtaposed with everything we’ve got
Taste today’s sweet laughter; rejoice and be glad because
Everything that is, soon after, becomes what once was

Then the dreamer starts to see what starry eyes once missed
Fantasy will step aside for moments slowly kissed
Where what want composes as youth dons a weathered brow
Becomes about smelling roses blooming here and now

© Janet Martin

 


 

 

Wednesday, May 5, 2021

Living the Dream

 

Love; how often it (He) leaves us at
a loss for words, but we try anyway...

Love always...


makes room


for one...


more!


And never seems to find the time or reason to complain
With so much to be thankful for in both sunshine and rain






Love leaves so very little room for gloomy ‘woe is me’
It sets the heart a-bloom with mercy’s gentle sympathy
And never seems to find the time or reason to complain
With so much to be thankful for in both sunshine and rain

Love steps into a world of need and beauty intertwined
To make the most of here and now so swiftly left behind
It forgives flaws because we are all broken from the start
Love sees beyond appearance to the person of the heart

Love always makes room for one more, with warm, welcome embrace
It cherishes the moment as a sacred gift of grace
To employ for the joy and benefit of fellowman
Mindful of its Employer, love gives the best that it can

...and looks forward, not back at facts no wishing can undo
Love focuses not on the 'What' but rather on the 'Who'
So often softly startling us with opportunity
To serve the King of kings with honour and humility

Love makes worthwhile each mile no matter how common they seem
And often smiles to realize, love is living the dream
Because love leaves so very little room to fret and fuss
With so much to be thankful for from He who so loves us

© Janet Martin

 "And this is my prayer: that your love may abound more and more 
in knowledge and depth of insight, 
so that you may be able to discern what is best 
and may be pure and blameless for the day of Christ, 
filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ—
to the glory and praise of God."




Monday, April 12, 2021

Onus of Reply

 PAD Challenge day 12: 

For today's prompt, write a poem using at least three of the following six words:
convict, great, play, race, season, and voice.
Extra credit for using all six words.
Extra extra credit for writing a sestina.

Sometimes dreams wane...
sometimes they are fulfilled!
Japan celebrates with Hideki Matsuyama 
as he, the winner of the Masters 2021




I am a bit of a born day-dreamer but am beginning to realize
in my mid-fifties, how the play of dreams is no longer center-stage!
Too much reality to focus on!

Attempting a sestina😐
I realized after struggling through writing this 
the extra challenge was using the six key words as the last word in each line! 
oops. See if I get a chance to try again later!


Somewhere along the way the play of dreams begins to wane
The great weight of love’s tears seasons the years with sun and rain
The voice of choice convicts or forgives; we live its Reply
The success of life’s race we run is determined thereby
Where, not how we begin but how we finish is the test
This is the day the Lord has made and He deserves our Best

Life is too precious to give it anything but our best
Reality plays havoc with dreams, thus sometimes they wane
Who knows what life bestows to compose the lows of its test
Some seem to get more sunshine; some seem to live in the rain
Where so much more than meets the eye is presented thereby
The voice of choice always at the mercy of our reply

We ought to give most careful thought to effects of reply
Because much more than meets the eye works out for our best
Where strength of character, not physique, is fashioned thereby
Our voice is heard without a word in life’s multi-choice Test
Where oft we face the race, drenched by life’s elemental rain
And in its storm the play of dreams sometimes begins to wane

But, even as the play of darling dreams begins to wane
The world is waiting to receive the brunt of our reply
Because we are all runners of a sort, life’s sun and rain
Matters of fact that season trust and dust of days thereby
For no one runs the race of life without facing a test
And sometimes those who finish last are they who finish best

This is the day the Lord has made and He deserves our best
Who knows what waits to take the place of darling dreams that wane
What phoenix waits to rise like a prize from ashes of test
What flower waits to wow us after a shower of rain
Where our measure of happiness is oft finessed thereby
Where love’s treasures that we possess depend upon reply

It all comes down to this; the sacred onus of reply
We bear responsibility for both its worst and best
The legacy we leave behind is thus designed thereby
Not by the circumstance but by the reply to the test
Where together we can weather either the sun or rain
And perhaps fill the gaps with joy when dreams begin to wane

So then, because reply is what a life is shaped thereby
Even when dreams begin to wane let’s face both sun and rain
With nothing but our best to conquer the brunt of the test

© Janet Martin




Monday, February 24, 2020

Hint o' Something


 The last three days have been a sweet yellow hint of something in the air...








Hint o' something kinder, sweeter sparkles on the sun-kissed air
Where the crinoline of winter starts to show its wear and tear
Old man winter seems to chuckle, (out of character is he)
And the brook begins babble illegible poetry

Suddenly without fair warning summer scenes dance through our heads
Because days are more reluctant to be hurried into bed
Hello, garden books and journals, time to dream a green-thumb dream
Hope dons slopes of pink and purple beneath folds of fresh-whipped cream

Something kitten-soft is purring in the pussy-willow tree
Ah, methinks I sense a stirring other than crepe filigree
Where the remnant leaf is brittle yet still captures our gaze
As we marvel at the little wonders that nature displays

Hint o' something warm and charming tugs a grin from north to south
Happiness begins to melt the downcast structure of the mouth
And we join the curious chuckle Old Man Winter has let slip
Where it seems that he has trouble keeping his white-knuckle grip

© Janet Martin